El Nino kept the white stuff to a minimum this winter. Now, it is putting many municipal budgets in the black.
The combination of relatively mild temperatures and low snowfall brought a savings windfall to state and local road departments, as salt mounds have remained high and overtime pay for snow removal has remained low.
“This winter has been very good to cities,” said David Seglin, an official with the Northwest Municipal Conference, which represents north and northwest suburbs. “Some put the leftover (snow-removal monies) back into general revenue funds, and some have been able to save throughout the winter because they buy salt as they go along.”
In Arlington Heights, snow-removal crews responded to 16 fewer storms this winter than last, resulting in a $65,000 savings compared with this time in 1997, according to Brian Usher, the village’s maintenance superintendent. That’s a 16 percent savings in the village’s $400,000 snow-removal budget.
In Glenview, the village had spent $14,548 in overtime through February to clear snow, compared with the $46,592 accrued by workers at that time last year, said Bill Porter, the village’s public works director.
“Obviously, we’ve had savings in salt and overtime,” added Michael Miranda, director of public works in Oak Brook. “We are kind of filled to the gills, if you will, with salt right now.”
Naperville, Park Forest and other communities also reported spending less for salt, labor and equipment than in average winters, officials said.
The Illinois Department of Transportation sprinkled 133,000 tons of salt on the state’s highways and expressways running through Chicago and the suburbs. That’s about 120,000 tons less than last year, said Roy Fonda, the agency’s local operations engineer, noting that the difference equates to a savings of nearly $2 million.
In Chicago, the milder winter would have been a bigger blessing if not for the March 9 snowstorm. Still, the city did report spending only $8 million of the $12 million it had budgeted for snow removal for 1998.
“We were literally still salting side streets the following Saturday” after the March 9 storm, said Terry Levin, spokesman for the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, which is responsible for snow removal.
Meanwhile, at the Chicago Department of Transportation, which repairs the city’s 3,500 miles of streets, the milder winter is being welcomed for causing fewer potholes, said Craig Wolf, a department spokesman.
“Normally, in December and January, I get deluged by TV crews wanting to do stories on potholes,” he said. “This year it hasn’t happened.”
The mild El Nino weather pattern significantly reduced the thaw-and-freeze cycle, which allows water from melting ice to seep into the cracks of a road, then freeze and expand, breaking the pavement.
It’s this cycle that causes potholes, said Bill Baltutis, executive director of the Transportation Management Association of Lake-Cook, a group of businesses along Lake-Cook Road. But with the warm weather this winter, local road crews have been able to concentrate on repairs instead of clearing snow.
“It just stands to reason that if you have fewer freeze-and-thaw cycles and less movement in the pavement, you experience fewer problems,” said Gregory Kramer, public works director in River Forest.
He said his department used no salt–“a necessary evil”–in February. This may translate into less dead grass this spring just beyond the curbs of many streets, where the spray from passing cars often carries liquefied salt.
“We’ve had some mild winters, but not as mild as this,” he said.
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In addition to allowing some communities to begin road repairs early, some towns are using the money they saved on salt and snow-plowing overtime to fix streets.
“We surveyed the streets and even did some pothole patching,” said Andy Radetski, Palatine’s director of public works. He noted the township didn’t have to contract out for snowplowing and hauling this year, saving about $120,000.
“These activities are the kind of things we start in April,” he said. “But we’ve been doing them all winter.”